EXTREME WAVES AND WAVE COUNTS IN A HURRICANE

Rodney J. Sobey, Bruce D. Chandler, Bruce A. Harper

Abstract

Estimates of wave conditions within a storm event must recognize the variability of wave conditions during the storm and not just the peak conditions. A methodology is presented for the estimation of the probability distribution of the maximum wave in a storm event and the wave count in the same storm event. The predictions are compared with field observations of wave conditions in tropical cyclones from Australia's North West Shelf.